


Let Us Dream (Of Falcons, Lions & Ravens)

by mihrsuri



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Romance Novel, Biracial Character, Jewish Character, Meet-Cute, Multi, OT3, Polyamory, Romantic Fluff, jewish bent characters, race bent characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 03:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16694275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: Henry meets Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn when he crashes into them on the street, which isn't the best meet cute in the world. Or my Tudors OT3 Modern AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [We Sang of Roses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11977353) by [FeuillesMortes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeuillesMortes/pseuds/FeuillesMortes). 



Anne would say she met Thomas Cromwell...well actually she met him earlier in the sense of ‘being in the same space’ but that wasn’t really meeting, because he was behind the coffee machine at her favourite hole in the wall coffee shop, not taking orders and Anne is not aware of people in her pre coffee early morning state so she doesn’t register his presence. 

She does however, adore the way he makes coffee. Absolutely adores. It’s perfection in a cup and she is delighted she found this place so close to her summer internship in Doughty Street, especially as the flat she’s living in for the summer has a coffee maker that only sometimes works. Plus, she needs the coffee to keep up (it’s great she does - the internship she got is exactly what she wanted and it’s paid but it is a lot of work). Anne absolutely sends up a prayer of thanks for the coffee maker though, whoever they are because it's perfection. 

She's living in Islington and taking the Tube every day, she needs all the delicious caffeine she can get, especially after a whole couple of years of easy walking and cycling in Oxford and dealing with morning rush hour sometimes makes her question her decision to live in London in the future, even though she spent a large part of her life in Paris. 

When Anne actually catches a glimpse of the person who makes her coffee she'd like to say she was struck by a bolt of love (she was) but her first thought is that he's gorgeous and also, that she really doesn't need a crush right now (too distracting) but she's not giving up this coffee so she'll just ignore it and it will go away. It doesn't go away. She doodles sketches of him in her lunch breaks and feels completely ridiculous about the whole thing. 

What happens next is that she leaves her purse on the counter one day and Gorgeous Man runs after her to give it back to her. They brush hands as he hands over her purse and both of them pretend not to notice the jolt of electricity that happens as they do. Anne manages a thank you and then she spots the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It's a Rumi quote. Pared with a Tolkien image. She can't not say something - her heritage and her interests require it and it is a gorgeous tattoo. 

"Thanks" gorgeous man says "the tattoo thing isn't entirely square with my religion but well, my Rabbi says Hashem doesn't mind" and oh. Oh. Oh. Anne thinks before she squashes that and agrees that it's amazing and they end up in a conversation about Tolkien and languages before Anne apologises and says she should really stop bothering him at work. 

"Oh no, you aren't at all - seriously, this has been great. Do you think…" 

That's when another man, far too focused on his phone, crashes into them both and sends coffee and papers flying everywhere. Anne is very very inclined to snap at the man but he's appropriately apologetic and immediately offers to pay for the dry cleaning her coat will need so maybe he's not a complete git, she thinks. 

-

Henry meets Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn when he crashes into them on the street, which isn't the best meet cute in the world but he does stop to help them pick up everything they've dropped and ask if he can't pay for their dry cleaning bill at the very least. "Or if you'd like, I'd love to to take you both out for an apology drink later" he offers and to their surprise, Anne and Tom find themselves charmed into accepting. 

-

Thomas Cromwell tells himself he doesn't have time for a crush, particularly a crush on a customer he doesn't know but he'll admit he does have one, despite not having any time (between work, university and whatever semblance of a life he attempts to have on No Money he really does not have any). So he puts it on the shelf of 'things that are there in my head but I am not dealing with' until Anne Boleyn forgets her purse and oh, he's going to have to deal with it. 

After the man who crashed into them leaves (Henry, it's Henry something Thomas remembers) with an invitation to a really nice restaurant in Kensington he and Anne talk a little longer. He learns that she's biracial (like him), Jewish (also like him) and she's studying law (which...is also like him) and he also learns that they can talk for a ridiculously long time until his boss tells him his break is long over and Anne starts and remarks that she really needs to not be late and they part, both of them still firm on not having a crush. Or at least, if they have one they are not going to act on it. 

-

Henry Tudor definitely has time for a crush. He just isn't sure with these two, which is unusual for him because well, he's always been sure of himself in this area but suddenly he finds himself all at sea for two sets of dark eyes and it's...it's lovely and terrifying all at once. He wonders if this is how Arthur felt meeting Catalina, this certainty, this feeling of rightness - that you've found the people who you want to spend your life and your eternity with. Because Henry, Henry definitely knows that he has found those people and he has no compass for this, no bearings or guide for all that he's had long term partners he's loved very much before because this is such a different thing. 

So he's going to take extra care getting ready. He nearly calls the restaurant to arrange some other extras other than a private room but tells himself that it's both not a date and far too early for doing something like that but oh, oh he wants to. He really wants to - it's ridiculous and over the top and he's not going to but the urge to find out their favourite flowers and have them in the restaurant is….definitely still there as he leaves.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not Having A Crush (No Really)

Anne finds herself half distracted all the rest of that day but she manages to get through it and get home where she finds that the boiler has decided not to work and according to her flatmates their landlord has said it'll be fixed in a few hours. Anne just rolls her eyes at the universe, grabs a change of clothes and takes an uber to her sisters after receiving permission via text to use their shower.  


She's not sharing with her sister for the summer because Miriam and Jane only have a tiny one bedroom flat and also frankly, while she loves them both they are newlyweds and Anne really really does not need to know that much about her sisters sex life thank you very much. Jane's the only one home when Anne gets there and she is welcomed with a hug and an offer of tea and biscuits. Homemade biscuits of course because that's just Jane Boleyn, nee Seymour (Anne thinks Jane might actually be a disney princess reincarnated in the form of a nursery school teacher) and she accepts with delight and they chat for a bit about Jane's class until Miriam comes home, waves at Anne, kisses Jane and then shoves Anne in the direction of the shower "and don't worry, you can't use up the hot water - we checked and it's limitless as far as I can tell" and goes to the bedroom to start taking down her hair (which is a process with the amount of hairspray her sister has to use - musical theatre is fun like that) while Anne (blissfully) showers and pulls on her 'smart, sophisticated and grown up' outfit and makeup. 

Gorgeous man - whose name is Thomas, Anne reminds herself firmly, meets her outside the restaurant wearing a really flattering black shirt and slacks and Anne is definitely into it, but she's not going to think about how good his legs look or...she's not going to think about it. Instead they both decide to go inside and oh, wow, Anne thinks, as Guy Who Ran Into Them ushers them into what is clearly a private dining room and Anne just decides to enjoy the evening of two genuinely handsome, intelligent people and delicious food (because GWRIT aka Henry is completely hot, charming and clearly has amazing fashion sense). 

-

There is no awkwardness between the three of them. In fact it's scarily relaxed, scarily familiar - as though they are old friends or have always been friends - Henry is utterly charming - truly he is like the sun, Thomas thinks and Anne is a star and then he laughs at himself for being such a romantic and tries to put it out of his head but finds he can't. They linger over their meal, linger over drinks and end up going to find ice cream somewhere and walk through the streets, talking, laughing and making faces at each others taste in beverages ("What do you mean you don't drink coffee" Anne says teasingly, "that's a complete waste of talent" and she and Henry look at each others black coffee and whipped cream filled frappuccino in mutual horror) until they realise it's nearly two am and they all have to be at work tomorrow (or at least Anne and he do - he isn't sure about Henry) and all three of them go to break apart, having exchanged numbers and promises to meet up. 

The next time, Thomas thinks that it might have been a one off - a magical night that can't be repeated but it turns out it isn't - it's a continuing series of being utterly comfortable with these people he suddenly cannot imagine his life without, even as he thinks that he really really does not need this. (Henry insisted on paying the first night but the second time neither of them comment that he picks the cheapest thing on the menu and after that they both suggest less expensive outings and oh fuck, did they have to be so thoughtful as well, Thomas thinks).

He really does not. Except he absolutely does. 

-

Thomas hardly ever goes home to his flat anyway because well, there's not much to go 'home' to - it's essentially just a tiny half bedroom with a mattress wedged in, a pair of terrible flatmates and a bathroom that is more mould than bathroom (mostly Thomas showers at work, which also where he gets food - it's not that the coffee shop doesn't pay well it's that between rent and books and tube tickets he simply has no money left over at all) and a kitchen that he's fairly sure his flatmates have made into a biohazard. When he does go home though, he finds himself smiling - thinks he might even find the flatmates tolerable. 

(He doesn't love this flat or this area - Thomas has his heart in the housing estate not far from here, the place that was his mothers, with the smell of mint tea, zereshk polo ba morgh, challah and rose water cakes. That was home, not this place which is far too much his fathers, but it's the place he can afford so he puts up with it). 

I do not have a crush, Thomas says to himself except I do and I can't. He doesn't have time and there's too much he has to explain, too much he'd have to burden them with and he can't but they can be friends, the three of them and that matters. That is wonderful. 

-

Anne almost wishes George was here but he's in Singapore with Jemma and their daughter for the annual visit to Jemma's parents and so he can't come over and tease her/give her advice and she really does not feel like asking Miriam because she's imposed enough recently, with everything that's been going on in her life so Anne just sits in her room and carefully makes lists of all the reasons she cannot have these crushes and how she is not having romantic feelings. She fails to convince herself but she does decide that they can be friends. Wonderful friends. Nothing can go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miriam = Mary Boleyn.  
> Jemma = Jane Rochford


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Families, denying feelings and also adorable baby nieces!

George had once described Timothy Seymour as 'the worst of the YouTube comment section given sentient form' and honestly, Anne thought, he wasn't wrong. It wasn't just that he was the kind of good looking white guy who was far far too aware of his own good looks and charm it was that he wanted it to work on everyone and sulked when it didn't. Normally she didn't have to deal with him but this was an extended family birthday gathering and so he was here. Opining on something she does not want to hear several seats down. 

(Anne honestly thinks her mother's method of dealing with Family Drama is the best one - just cutting them off and saying 'I'll talk to you when you decide to not be bigoted pricks' in a calm and reasonable voice but then, she's biased) Also the food is bad and she's already had someone's in law ask "so is she really Miriam s sister" in a tone that implies exactly what you'd think it does. And then she hears the tail end of Timothy saying "...I really think he has a point, you know - I mean political correctness…" and in the interests of not throwing her wine at the man Anne texts Thomas her frustration and gets back a "I'd tell you I'd help with hiding the body (and I will) but is he worth getting blood on your clothes" and Anne writes back that she can just ask Henry to buy a new one ("he will, he's a soft touch") and she gets back a bunch of emojis and a "all I ask is that you provide the barrel of acid" and she can't not laugh, which thankfully gets lost in the general noise of the restaurant. 

I do not have a crush Anne thinks to herself for what must be the seventh time that week and utterly fails to convince herself for the seventh time that week. 

-

I do not have a crush Thomas Cromwell thinks to himself for what must be the seventh time that week and utterly fails to convince himself for the seventh time that week. 

-

Henry definitely does have a crush. He has more than a crush, he thinks to himself because honestly, truly he knows he's going to marry these two one day and the certainty is firm and decided in a way that warms him. He hasn't asked Arthur about it but Catalina noticed (she was good at noticing things about him, which is sometimes annoying because it reminds Henry that she's known him since he was ten because she and Arthur are that kind of teenage sweethearts couple but mostly it makes him glad that he has another sister in his life) and asked if he was seeing someone. 

"I'm not, but I'd like to be" is what he says as he helps her make dinner while Arthur feeds Marisol one of those strange organic food combinations that are deemed acceptable to feed to babies (he really doesn't understand why straight apricot and beetroot is fine when it's for under twos but only for under twos) and she mostly refuses to eat it (correctly, Henry thinks). 

"Oh, so have you asked them yet?" Catalina says, serenely cutting vegetables. "Usually you manage that pretty early on" and when he says that no, he hasn't because they seem to just want to be friends right now she gives him a look. 

"Henry Tudor, is this a serious thing? A 'not making out with the son of your fathers business rival on a yacht' but instead actually dating kind of thing? I'm intrigued - can I hear about this paragon?"

"There's two of them, actually" Henry says and pulls out his phone to bring up a picture of the two of them. "Both studying law, in fact" 

Arthur chooses this moment to put his head round the door in order to get something to wipe down Marisols highchair and remarks "oh thank god it's not Francis is it" to which Henry mimes throwing something at his older brother, because no, while Francis was fantastic in bed he is not going back there again. For one thing, it might mean encountering the guy on land with no water to push him into and also Henry might actually have to talk to him and that? That would be a world of no way in the world thank you very much. 

"I have far far better taste than that in my relationships thank you very much big brother. Francis was a hookup, not a relationship." 

"Fair point." is what Arthur says, before he hears a giggling noise from the dining room. "I'd better go, Mari is probably going to destroy something if I don't" and leaves Henry with Catalina who just stares at him knowingly and oh fuck, Henry thinks, I am so gone. So gone. I am mentally picking out rings and baby names levels of gone and it's only been a few weeks. 

-

Elizabeth Boleyn-Norfolk ("yes my maiden name is Norfolk, I know it's ridiculous but it is") had always gone her own way. Getting disowned by her parents for marrying an Iranian Jewish man wasn't actually an act of rebellion and neither was her bisexuality. Or the shaved head. Or the tattoos. The clothing and the punk band may have been, at least in part. But one thing that it has always meant is that she's always been free with her three children - particularly about how they didn't have to be exposed to her side of the family. 

(Particularly her older brother Howard, who she's proud to say she has shoved in a fish pond) 

Which meant that when her parents made it clear they only wanted to see Miriam (who had inherited Elizabeth's blonde hair and blue eyes) and not George and Anne (who took after their father) she had refused to let her parents see any of them unless they committed to Not Being Bigots in a serious and ongoing fashion. The extended Seymour family has not set any such limits which means that Anne and Miriam have to carefully extract their mother before she gets into a drag out fight with one of the in laws who told Jane it was a shame she was the way she was, being so pretty and all. 

Which means that Anne is outside with her mother and sister when she gets a message from Henry, asking if she and Thomas would like to come have dinner at his place and she gets questions about the dreamy smile that comes onto her face. Which results in Anne denying there's anything going on and that she has any feelings about either of them and Elizabeth telling Miriam that Anne is going to marry those two, she swears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marisol = Mary Tudor


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry just waves it off as something that friends do for each other, because he's clearly not comfortable being thanked for things like this because he just thinks it's what you do, of course it's what you do.

Thomas ends up getting evicted at the end of a particularly long and awful day in which everything goes wrong. It starts with a tube delay, then the coffee machine completely blows up, a delivery doesn’t arrive and then his evening in the library ends with someone knocking water all over his ancient laptop which means it’s gone, which means he’s somehow going to have find money for another one (he has no idea how - he’d take a second job but he actually does not have the time) and then he finally gets home to find out he’s evicted. 

Which means that Thomas just...packs up his few belongings into a backpack (clothes, two other pairs of shoes, toiletries bag of stuff, his own book collection, the box containing the few things he has from his mother and gran), double checks the messenger bag he carries everywhere, throws the rest of his uni stuff into a duffle bag, goes outside and sits for a moment, resisting the urge to just break down because well, there’s no point. 

Then his phone beeps a reminder and he remembers that he has a dinner invitation to Henry’s that got rescheduled to tonight and he really does not need that but the thought of explaining why makes him want to just curl up and fucking die. 

Also, he could honestly do with the company and the food will probably be amazing, even if he looks like warmed over death because he would like something good to happen today. 

-

Anne nearly doesn't come to the dinner. Mostly because the day before Wyatt tried to show up again because one of her flatmates gave him her information even though Anne had said at the beginning not to give out she lived there to anyone, seriously, not anyone. But they'd 'thought he was so romantic' and she's not not fine like she had been, genuinely at this point she's had a lot of therapy, a really good lawyer and the knowledge that if he goes near her again physically he knows Miri will kill him (and he's terrified of her sister) but he's still been at her house and he's still left her non kosher chocolate, flowers she hates and terrible poetry and it's awful and she can't even curl up in her room and drink wine because he was in her house. 

She just packs her stuff up, calls George and gets Jemma who says "first of all, may he be thrown into a volcano after going through a grater made of legos that have been soaked in lemon juice. Second, of course you can stay at our place, seriously Anne, sisters are for this" and Anne tries not to cry as she hangs up. Jemma shows up with a rental van, waves off Anne offering to pay for it and they manage to load all her stuff into it pretty easily (she hadn't bought a lot of stuff to London - clothes, books, decorations and her bed (because Anne could not actually live without her bed) but the rest of her furniture is in storage for when she goes back to Oxford) and Anne somehow manages not to burst into tears both while loading her stuff and dealing with her flatmates trying to apologise and while on the way to George and Jemma's place. 

They live an hour out of London by fast train but at this point Anne will take it because their place is unlisted and secure and right now she just wants to feel safe. When they get there thankfully George isn't there because however much she loves him, Anne cannot handle her brother at this moment. They manage to set up most of her stuff that needs to be set up in the spare room and the rest of it goes into storage and then Jemma just look at Anne and says "go shower, take a bath and order some food - you can deal with people tomorrow" So Anne does that and ends up curled up in her pajamas watching The Great British Bake Off in a state of annoyed upset. 

So she nearly cancels dinner but honestly, she's feeling a lot of 'fuck you Wyatt' about the whole thing because she was doing really well and she is not going to let him screw up her life again (she called in sick from work today and they were embarrassingly understanding) so she pulls on nice clothes, shoves some stuff into an overnight bag and texts Miriam to see if she can crash with them for the night and catches the train in. 

Thomas ends up meeting Anne on the way to Kensington and she greets him with a "this week can die in a fire" look and oh shit, Thomas thinks, someone else has had a horrific week. She doesn't ask about his bags and he honestly appreciates that because he just...he can't deal with explaining at this point. Possibly he'll never be able to deal with it but particularly now. 

(It's not that he doesn't know how to live without a house because well, he's done it. It's just he thought he was past that and it's a fucking awful feeling in his stomach, thinking about the panicked scramble to find somewhere and what he'll do in the meantime) 

So they spend the trip in companionable silence, listening to music and sharing the most nonsense of memes and it helps, especially because Anne has a fantastically dry sense of humour. By the time they get to Henry's he finds they are both smiling and oh fuck, Thomas thinks, I am so gone. 

-

The food is amazing. Absolutely amazing, top quality catered and kosher as well, though Thomas and Anne aren't incredibly strict about it it's so nice to have someone pay attention to that. Also Henry's flat is predictably incredible and he has great taste in interior design. When Thomas tells him that Henry smiles hugely and Thomas, Thomas feels so warmed by it. They talk and talk and linger over wine they take out onto the rooftop afterwards and it's wonderful. And that's when Henry asks about his bags - just a question about if he's staying somewhere afterwards or something and Thomas, Thomas freezes. Thinks about lying. Really thinks about it. Thinks about deflecting. 

"It turns out I got suddenly evicted without other accommodation lined up" is what he says and Henry and Anne don't look at him with pity or patronisingly or with horror but just...they both offer him a hug (he takes them up on it) and Henry tells him firmly that he has "way too many spare rooms and seriously, I could do with a roommate who knows how to cook, you are doing me a favour, Tom - you can pay me back with food" and somehow, somehow he finds himself moving in. Temporarily until he finds a flat. 

And that's when Anne says she should be leaving because she's staying at Miriams for tonight and she doesn't want to wake them up coming in. And then, then, somehow Anne finds herself just breaking down because it's been so much and then, then Henry hesitatingly offers her a room until she can find a new place and Anne, Anne says yes because it's Henry and Tom and they have become her safe harbour. And Henry just waves it off as something that friends do for each other, because he's clearly not comfortable being thanked for things like this because he just thinks it's what you do, of course it's what you do.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elizabeth had once told him that the problem wasn’t in many ways that he and Harry were too different but that they were too alike in the wrong ways and Henry Tudor Senior could see it these days. Sometimes. Except for the times when he and his second son seemed as though they were from different planets and he’d never been able to decode his language.

Elizabeth had once told him that the problem wasn’t in many ways that he and Harry were too different but that they were too alike in the wrong ways and Henry Tudor Senior could see it these days. Sometimes. Except for the times when he and his second son seemed as though they were from different planets and he’d never been able to decode his language.

Lizzie could, of course. She’d always been able to decode all their children but Harry is closest to her, for all she’d never been able to explain them to each other.

Henry Tudor looks at Harry and wonders, what is there of me in him (his nose, his sarcasm, the sense he has for finding the right people for the job) versus Lizzie (red hair, sunny, warm, charming, loves literature and poetry, enjoys spending time with people, passionately wants to make the world better) and he knows it is not an exact science, that you cannot combine two peoples genes into a new person and quantify how much of those two people is in the new one, but it feels like he can.

And it’s terrifying because he loves Harry so fiercely (he likes Harry fiercely, he’s proud of his son) but he does not seem to know how to bridge the gap between them. Arthur, Arthur is easy but his namesake isn't, even all those years later. 

So Henry isn't surprised to hear more than one voice from his sons flat when he comes up to drop off some of Lizzie's excess baked goods but he is surprised that they've stayed this long. He's even more surprised when Harry answers the door and asks him in which is not something that usually happens with his sons dates (it had with Bess and with Will but it wasn't the norm - except when Harry had wanted to annoy him, such as in the case of Francis). But this morning Henry ushers him and introduces him to his friends off handedly but with great affection. 

When he gets back to Lizzie he's not surprised when his wife looks at him and says "it must be serious, if Harry is making introductions, even if he doesn't realise it yet" and when Henry arches his eyebrow at his wife she just smiles and says "he's our son, it might take him a while to work out how to say he loves them" which okay, that was fair. 

-

Anne's first impression of Henry Tudor Senior is that Henry is more like his father than he might think, but that might be her early morning brain talking. They seem to have the same sense of humour, the same intensity of focus and it's interesting because in other ways they are so dissimilar. 

Tom's first impression of Henry Tudor Senior is the same but he's also intimidated to a huge degree. 

Neither of them entirely realise the significance of Henry having introduced them to his dad, because Henry doesn't really introduce people to his parents. Oh he did with Bess (he and Bess were serious for a long time), Will already knew them even before they dated, Charles dad was close with his parents anyway and he'd never bothered with his other friends. But he wanted his parents to meet Anne and Tom. He wanted his family to meet Anne and Tom because he's sure they'll be part of his one day. 

The morning has been amazing. He learns that Anne doesn't talk before coffee, that Tom will absolutely get up with the dawn to drink tea and do the crossword and both of them love pancakes (pancakes are one of the few things Henry can actually cook) and apparently going through the cryptic crossword together. And eventually, responding to Henry talking to them when they've both woken up enough. 

He really doesn't want them to move out but Henry knows it would be a terrible idea to invite them to stay permanently so he leaves them debating house hunting and goes to look over some work. 

-

Tom calls the university housing office and gets precisely nowhere. The same thing with the letting agents and the share house notices because of course no one is looking for a flatmate this time of year. He eventually throws his phone down in irritation and looks at Anne who has the same look on her face. 

"I hate house hunting" they both say at the same time and it makes them both laugh for a moment. 

"I think" Anne says "we need to make some kind of elaborate bread in this amazing kitchen and listen to Hamilton really loudly" 

Tom agrees completely. They talk as they get ready - mostly about how Anne really doesn't want to impose on her brother or her sister again, because she's already done it so much recently and how much she hates this whole mess. When she gets to Wyatt, she makes a face and Tom says "if you don't want to talk about it I completely get it but if you do, seriously I will listen and make supportive faces as needed" and Anne finds herself telling him about the man and how he would not take a not interested for an answer and how so many people seem to think it's romantic and that she should just give him a chance" and Tom, Tom is remarkably good about it all. Almost like he knows something about what that kind of thing is like. 

"Let us vow to murder a society that pushes this shite narrative" he says and Anne laughs, agrees and tells him the bread needs a touch more flour. When Henry sticks his head round the door the bread is in the oven and Anne and Tom are exclaiming over his kitchen and debating lunch which honestly, it's more use than his kitchen has had for a long time. It's beautiful. They are beautiful. 

(Henry can make approximately three dishes himself - the rest of it is just him enjoying his food but knowing he can't make it). 

Henry nearly blurts out that he likes them over lunch. He doesn't this time, though. When he does, it's later and it's when John Norwich shows up in Thomas Cromwells life again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He throws a chip at her, but he doesn’t deny it (domesticity, Feelings! and some realisations!)

At first Tom and Anne settle into the rhythm of house hunting and both of them agree that it is terrible. Thomas finds himself having no luck - there are no open university housing places and no places in flats that he could have any luck affording, not with everything else he has to buy (this in part was why he had to turn down Oxford - scholarships could have paid for some of it but not enough) and when Henry hesitatingly offers him a room he breathes a sigh of relief. Especially because Henry accepts rent from him - it's hardly anything and Tom knows it is absolutely and completely below market rate but he appreciates the fact that Henry lets him pay for it. 

(He doesn't tell Henry about the terror he feels when he thinks about what other conditions there could have been, the ones that are familiar and known to him, the ones he expects despite what the logical side of him knows in his bones? He only knows the other side of it)

"Also seriously Tom, you'll be doing me a favour - there'll be someone here when I'm away and also someone who can cook" and it helps, to know that he has specific ways he can be useful to reassure the part of him that cannot imagine why anyone would offer someone like him such a gift. 

Because it is a gift. The suite of rooms he is given is bigger than the entirety of his last two flats put together and it's so clean he almost cries. This is a beautiful place, Thomas thinks as he organises his things and opens the window that is framed by trees and flowers. This is a gift, he repeats to himself, half not believing. 

Anne has an easier time accepting because well, she figures she could do far far worse than living with two good friends in a penthouse with her own bathroom and a garden and frankly Wyatt is not coming near this place and it makes her feel safe, to be here in a place he will not associate with her rather than her brother or sisters which he might or a flat with strangers that could be traced. So she moves in, carefully organising her things and laughing because Henry has a whole kitchen full of stuff that he mostly hasn't used and she thinks it's completely adorable. Completely adorable. 

Henry for his part is completely and utterly thrilled just by their presence here, with him. His place, which has only half felt like home is now genuinely starting to feel like one because Anne and Tom are here and yes, yes he knows that's ridiculous, he hasn't known them that long at all but it doesn't matter. He knows it, deeply and completely and it's not changing. So Henry just embraces the feeling and the facts. 

The facts are that he loves watching Anne and Tom cook and yell sing along to music (they both agree on Hamilton) loves the fact that Tom makes a ritual out of making tea and Anne will murder people if they bother her before her morning coffee, that Tom has a particular sleepy morning smile and Anne curls on her side when she falls asleep on the couch. And Henry, Henry knows he is so gone. So very gone. It's ridiculous actually, how much he is gone on these two ), loves watching them slowly wake up, loves seeing them sleepy on his couch or reading a book on the terrace and he cheerfully admits to himself that he is completely gone for them. Even if he's not doing anything about it. Even if there are moments where it kind of just...floors him how much he does. 

He has learned that Tom loves the ritual of making tea in the mornings, that Anne will make her coffee as strong as possible (he’d tried it, it was disgusting) and that they both love crosswords. He learns the shape of them, the way they both make themselves comfortable and unguarded and oh, oh it’s beautiful. 

It’s not even Anne, just wearing her pajamas, her hair morning messy and the glimpse of skin as she reaches for a coffee cup or Tom, curls still damp from the shower and a glimpse of bare chest (although it is that as well, he completely admits that it is that as well) and the accompanying and very definite physical attraction - it's all of that at once, the totality of it. It’s all the feelings at once. 

He cannot imagine life without them. 

-

Tom settles back into the rhythm of his classes but it’s better now because he has a place he wants to go back to and regular groceries in the fridge and it’s almost embarrassing how much of a difference it makes in everything. He also dodged questions about exactly who he is staying with (Rafe, rafe gets it but Rafe and he have always gotten each other, Zoe, his boss at the cafe is good at not asking questions he doesn’t want to discuss but still being there and the rest of his friends are mostly just casual - he’s never really had time or the education for many friends - Zoe, Rafe and Jamilla are his constants. And now so are Henry and Anne). 

He doesn’t actually realise Henry is The Henry Tudor for an embarrassingly long time though, perhaps because for all that Henry is supremely confident in himself and his destiny he is not someone who throws his name around - he just inhabits authority and people want to follow him and love him. 

It’s actually Jamilla who works it out. “The Henry Tudor? You are fucking kidding me Thomas, you are house sharing with Henry Bloody Tudor” 

...oh. Thomas thinks, suddenly making the connection. The Henry Tudor whose namesake father had billions in tech, whose mother came from storied related closely to British Royalty nobility and Henry who had built _the_ event planning company and uses his architecture degree to design for nonprofits. Henry for whom money is not even a consideration. Henry who, regardless of any of that has never held it over him. 

“He’s a person J, that’s all. Yes wealthier than Bill Gates but he’s a person, seriously. He makes terrible puns and loves the Bachelor” 

She leans forward, suddenly more interested. 

“Henry fucking Tudor loves the Bachelor. Thomas, you better not be pulling my leg because if you are I will personally murder you. Also you do realise you have a giant crush on him?” 

She puts a hand up, forestalling his protests. 

“You do, Thomas Cromwell, whether you want it or have time for it. You want to marry him and that gorgeous human rights lawyer and have devastatingly adorable children” 

He throws a chip at her but Thomas doesn’t deny it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So obviously Rafe = Rafe Sadler. Jamilla and Zoe are original characters who will probably come back (I love Zoe especially). Henry being an architect/event planner in a modern au is a headcanon I have had for a while, H7 as a tech billionaire is from feullismortes and boleynqueens headcanons.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He feels as though he has come to a home at last, in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to put a content warning for this chapter for discussion of trauma, child sexual abuse, CPTSD and a glimpse into the mind of an abuser (this um, echoes my own story and I debated about putting it in but one of the things that brings me joy about this OT3 is the idea that yes, even with trauma, even with still having it you can have love and kindness and things. That yes, you have scars, you have ongoing scars and pain but you can have kindness too).

Thomas Cromwell tells Anne Boleyn he has a crush on her almost at the same time as she does actually. It starts with Anne finding out that her internship boss wants to offer her a job after she qualifies because "you are very impressive employee" and Anne, Anne is jubilant in the way that only comes after realising that she's reached her dream - that she's going to be a human rights lawyer in an amazing firm, doing work that she's always wanted to do. She goes to buy champagne after work, starts to plan a celebration and then...then she realises she's going to have go back to Oxford. That she's going to have to leave London and Tom and Henry and suddenly she deflates, at least a little. 

I have a huge crush on them, she thinks, however much I don't have time for this and I should probably look at handling these feelings or at least on how to let them go. She's in Waitrose, looking at the 'dark chocolate with cherries' options when she realises that no, she doesn't want to let them go, she wants to say something. She wants to see what it would be like to know those two are hers, officially. She wants them or at the very least, she wants to take that chance. 

When she gets back to the flat it turns out that only Tom is home, but she figures she can start with him. She even has it all planned out in her head. 

-

Thomas Cromwell has decided that he needs to say something, because he can't deny this anymore and while he admits he can't see why they might like him, he knows that people do and he wants to be brave, even though it's terrifying because he doesn't want this to slip past him. He wants to say, I love you both, I think or at least I'm falling in love or I have a crush. I want to know you both. He plans it out in his head, carefully and methodically. 

What actually happens is this - Anne walks in, champagne and chocolate in hand and Thomas is wearing his oldest t-shirt and sweats and Anne is flustered and sweaty because she'd had to run for the tube and they both blurt out "I have a crush and I want to date you and Henry anditsokayifyoudon'twanttoiudnerstand" essentially simultaneously at which point they both just start cracking up hysterically because, honestly. 

"Hashtag useless bisexuals" Anne says when they've both calmed down. "But yes Tom, I would very much like to date you and Henry" and Tom replies in the affirmative as well and eventually they settle down to working out how to ask Henry, because they worry that Henry might think they are only wanting to date him out of some sense of obligation for some reason. 

"I mean, in all honesty I'm glad he's so good about things like this, but I would also very much like him to understand that we both fancy him" 

"Do you think we could just send him something tasteful and symbolic?" Tom says, somewhat as a joke and somewhat not and it turns out that Anne has a really good idea about what they could give Henry and they plan the whole thing out over chocolate and what turns out to be truly terrible champagne. 

Henry texts them both to say that he's been called out unexpectedly to deal with a work crisis and he'll be back tomorrow night which gives them both time to plan. They start with a dinner - with roses and candles and something else. It's silly, the tiny packet of fancy chocolate hearts from Fortnum & Mason but it also says a lot - Henry is so much heart about everything he does and everyone he cares about and being included in that circle is such a warming thing. 

They have it all planned out. What actually happens is that John Norwich shows up at the end of the street as Tom walks home from work. 

-

The thing he remembers...no, that's not right, not exactly. There are a lot of memories unfortunately, some in vivid technicolour and some in flashes of grey but one of the things he remembers most vividly is the way he was expected to be grateful. Wasn't Mr Norwich such a wonderful man, doing so much for the community? Wasn't Thomas fortunate, to have been picked out by him to be mentored? He'd learned to answer smoothly that yes, of course he was. 

It sticks in his throat now. Because of course, of course it was bullshit but Thomas was a biracial kid from the Wrong Part Of London whose mother and grandparents had died, whose father was locked up (and had knocked him around anyway) and so no one looked closer. No one knew that he'd been on the streets after his father had kicked him out, that when he'd tried to come to back his father had delivered him to John Norwich for the price of a few petty favours. 

(Sometimes, sometimes he'll bleakly say to Rafe that his father sold him for nothing more than a fancy stolen telly and a supply of booze and hey, wasn't that a fucking statement on his actual worth. Rafe doesn't laugh but he doesn't condemn him for saying it). 

John Norwich is a respected businessman on the outside. Pillar of the community, on the board of several charities, sponsors the local kids football teams, had a youth centre built, has a beautiful wife and a tasteful home. Of course he also runs half the gangs in the area, but people don't look for it in white blokes like him. They don't think, Thomas knows, of him taking a ten year old and fucking him for six years in return for not hurting other people. For being allowed to stay free, to go to school, to not die. Sometimes he'd wanted to, in all honesty. 

Thomas had run, after he got into a boarding school college to do his A levels. He'd run and he'd gone to see someone professional (when he could afford it), he'd found friends (Rafe, Rafe is one of the few from his old life) and he has something of a settled life. Except, except now he's seeing his nightmare standing back in his old life. 

The nightmare looks little changed - maybe a little greyer but he still looks like the same Trustworthy Community Leader that Tom sees in his worst dreams and for a moment, just a moment he thinks that Norwich might not have seen him. That it might have been some kind of awful fucking random happenstance that he's here. And then the other man strides towards him, smirking. 

"Thomas. Thomas. I'm so disappointed in you, the way you left without a word. So ungrateful. I've missed you these past years - do you know that?" 

The "I'll make you pay for every moment of that absence" is implied and then, then Henry is there, back early and his cheerful "Tom - I have returned from hell, you really need to hear this story about…" trails off as he watches the other man back away from a grey haired man in a suit. 

"Tom?" Henry says but Tom Cromwell barely hears him, focused on Norwich who is smirking as he talks. 

"Don't tell me, you found another source of income to leech off in return for showing off your skills? But then, you've always been very resourceful that way, haven't you Thomas? Always scrabbling for whatever you could get?" 

He turns to Henry, inviting him to share in the conversations but Henry, Henry just stops and Tom can see his face go cold, a kind of cold that reminds him of the few images he has seen of Henry Senior on the news when he has been particularly furious at a question. 

"Listen, I have no idea who you are or what you think you are doing but you are clearly not welcome here. Leave." 

"And what if I don't?" 

(He's showing his hand, Tom thinks absently, suddenly, aware that Henry is taller than Norwich and somehow, somehow more of a presence)

"I will call the police and then I will call the media and I will make sure that they see you being dragged away for the cameras. And then I will find the most muckraking tabloid hack I can possibly tip off and I will make sure they will dig up every single dirty secret you have and I will have them publish it all. I will bury you. So yes, I would leave." 

And then, then Tom watches John Norwich turn around with a snarl, with a threat and a slammed car door but he leaves. Henry had gotten him to leave and Tom is still shaking, he knows he's still shaking but Henry, Henry is coming closer to him and….Henry stops, far enough away that he's close but not touching. Far enough that Tom knows he could run if he needed too. 

"Tom, Tom. You're on the street outside our flat. I'm here. Do you need me to not touch you?" 

It's Tom who finds himself stumbling into Henry's arms, because Henry, made John Norwich leave. He made him leave because he'd made Tom upset. He'd cared. He'd noticed. He'd grounded him, Tom thinks and he leans into Henry, so close he can smell the scent of him and feel the silk of his shirt and Henry is murmuring reassurances in his ear and oh, oh. 

 

"Do you want to go inside?" Henry asks him and yes, yes he does. So they go inside and thank fuck they don't run into anyone and then Anne is there and she, she asks too and suddenly he's between them - he can smell Anne and Henry's perfume and he can see the flowers they'd used to decorate the kitchen and the bread he and Anne had made yesterday and he...he can't. 

"I love you both so much" he says and he doesn't realise he said it out loud until Henry gasps softly and Anne hugs him tighter and for a moment he thinks he's screwed up completely until Henry says. "I was planning on telling you both that today" and Anne says "Tom and I had a whole strategy, you know" and oh, oh that matters on this horrible day. 

But right now, right now he needs to explain things. 

-

They order in from the fanciest burger place available and Thomas tells the story while they are waiting for the meal to arrive. He figures he doesn't want to have to tell it twice. Henry and Anne handle it beautifully, don't look at him with pity or anger or shame. Don't tell him anything other than "we are so sorry my love' and ask him if there's anything they need to do, anything else they need to know. He goes through it (no, kink isn't a thing I can do, don't hold me down, no hands around my throat, I will have nightmares, reminding me of where I am is helpful, I am getting help, it's not your responsibility to heal me, I promise) and apologises for having to do this but they both wave him off. 

"The least we can do, both of us, is hear you. If you can go through what you did, we can listen" Anne says, her face gentle and Henry, Henry nods and puts his hand in Toms. He feels as though he has come to a home at last, in the end.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a haven, to simply be with each other in between the routine of work and university and life - Anne takes to walking through it with a smile, Tom is glowing and soft and makes his friends smile when he can't see and Henry, Henry is simply delightedly, happily, smitten. He doesn't even try to hide it.

That first night they just cuddle together, the three of them and then it turns out they go to bed the same and Thomas, Thomas falls asleep which he thought he might not. He manages to not wake them when he wakes up at three am (but then he'd always had nightmares without noise) but just goes to make tea after he's boiled himself in the shower just to remember where he was. He's drinking the tea when Henry walks out, rubbing his eyes and Anne walks out obviously one step off sleep but they both hold out their arms for a hug. 

He ends up making tea for all three of them and then going back to bed. They wake up and Henry is makes pancakes and brings tea for him and coffee for a 'don't talk to me before I'm caffeinated Tudor or I will kill you' Anne and they just have a lazy morning in bed with books and phones and talking about nothing in particular - Henry's youngest sister is in her GCSE year and apparently keeps texting Henry for music theory help ("I keep saying, Rosie I'm a bit out of date and I'm a strings player, not a pianist") and the latest antics of Anne's niece in her quest to Try To Taste Everything In The House ("Mei Ling is very definite that all adults are the worst every for preventing her from eating soap") and it's warm and safe and easy.   
-

When Thomas goes off to work and Anne goes to her barre class and Henry, Henry finds himself punching a boxing bag. He knows, oh he knows he did the right thing (some of that was Bess, some of that was instinct) and he knows it wouldn't help but he wants to kill Norwich and then set the corpse on fire and shoot the ashes into the sun. It's where Anne finds him and she looks extremely sympathetic. 

"I was going to ask if you wanted to go fencing with me but I think both of us would just end up frustrated with light swords?" 

Henry says something about how he wants a sharpened jousting lance and Anne agrees with a half laugh but suggests that they both just go for a run in Kensington Gardens instead in the hope that it might help, at least somewhat. 

-

Thomas finds his hands shaking at work. He can't focus and even with the distance of a counter and a machine between customers it's too close for strangers and everything is too closed in and not closed in enough. Finally Zoe takes one look at him and says she's calling him a cab and he can take the rest of the day off paid and he goes home with a feeling of ashamed relief. After a shower he ends up curled up in front of The Great British Bakeoff and Anne and Henry join him, warm presences on either side. 

-

They do take it slowly, the three of them but it grows from embraces, to soft kisses, to tangled limbs and lazy mornings in bed. They learn that Henry loves to spoil them, that Anne loves late night kisses and that Tom will melt if you run your hands through his hair. It's a beautiful thing, this slow learning and folding into each other. 

It is a haven, to simply be with each other in between the routine of work and university and life - Anne takes to walking through it with a smile, Tom is glowing and soft and makes his friends smile when he can't see and Henry, Henry is simply delightedly, happily, smitten. He doesn't even try to hide it. 

It's when, at a family dinner Rosie asks "when are we going to get to meet your boyfriend and your girlfriend" and Meg sputters "ROSIE"at the same time as their mum says "Mary Rose, I'm sure your brother will introduce them in his own time" and Arthur tries not to laugh that he realises he's been wanting to keep them to himself, a precious pair that are his alone to keep safe. Of course, that isn't how it works but he wants to protect them so he stumbles for a moment in his mind even though he knows he isn't their only shelter from storms, their diamond that stands between them and the world. 

He manages to smile at Rosie, who is his favourite sister and promises that he'll get around to it. 

They meet Rafe Sadler early on, when he shows up early before Thomas gets back from class and he says "I don't do threats - but if you hurt him I will personally take painful and bloody vengeance but I honestly don't think you will" and after that Henry and Anne find themselves falling into an easy friendship with him and Tom's other friend Jamilla had bounced in, got on with Anne immediately, glared at Henry and eventually came to a truce after saying "I know Rafe probably said he'd kill you but I will travel back in time and make sure you are never born" and Zoe eventually comes for dinner and turns out to love the same music as Henry. 

They meet Jemma and George and Mai Ling when they come to pick up Anne for a day out together and Henry and Mai Ling get on perfectly - Henry says he doesn't want to hand her back ("give me back my niece, Hal") and spends the rest of the day thinking about what Anne's eyes and Tom's curls would look like on a child and Anne asks if they want to go along to lunch to 'meet the rest of my family - I promise they have much better taste in facial hair than George' and so they make a date for a tucked away place in Kensington.   
But he's still hesitant to introduce them to his family because, somehow they have become his precious secrets and Henry, Henry worries about judgement, even though he shouldn't but he's always felt that he was lesser than Arthur in his fathers eyes, because his dad and Arthur always got each other and the two of them were anything but and he doesn't want to see Henry Tudor Senior look at him in incomprehension in a way that might feel as though it reflects on Anne or Tom because sometimes it feels like he would, that he would look differently upon them as spouses of his son rather than friends. 

"You don't even try to understand" Henry had screamed at his father once and then, later he'd spat "Don't even try to pretend you care about me - I don't reflect well on you so you don't give a shit" and yes, it's been years now, but he still feels that sometimes, that sense that he is never anything but a disappointment, that he's failed to measure up to his fathers standards and he wonders if his dad will look at Tom and Anne and judge them by his son. 

He hadn't looked at his fathers face when he'd walked out that door. They do better now, but Henry still feels that he is wrong, somehow, whatever he is told. And he could see the way that Tom was scared of his father, at least a little and that does not encourage him to introduce them to his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Rosie = Mary Rose Tudor and Meg = Princess Margaret.   
> 2\. "I'm not a pianist" = Henry Tudor was musical but I think on the lute so in my head in the modern world he is a stringed instrument player.   
> 3\. The slightly tortured diamond/jewel metaphor is a allusion to the gift that Anne Boleyn sent Henry of a woman on a ship with a diamond.   
> 4\. Bess and Will by the way are Bessie Blount (who is living happily with her wife in LA and being a psychologist) and William Compton who is Being A Journalist Somewhere. Francis is King Francis I, in this universe the son of Henry Seniors chief business rival who Henry had a fling with one summer when he was having A Moment.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I can't say I won't worry about you - I always will but I promise that I know those two are good people who love you and I can only judge them very favourably for loving you Harry" is the last thing he says before they part

Henry knows there was a time before Arthur was ill. He knows, because he remembers it - remembers the bubble of happiness of their family that was never entirely the same afterwards, because it couldn't be. You couldn't go back. Harry was ten, Meg was thirteen and Arthur was fifteen. He'd always prayed about his children - always felt the terror of letting them go, letting them out into a world that would hurt them, that would try to take advantage of them so he'd tried to hold them close to their family. He knows he did so even more, after Arthur. And Harry had been so young, so bright and open and kind and it terrified Henry (it still terrifies him sometimes, seeing the way Lizzie opens her arms to the world, despite everything). He wanted to hold his son close, to make sure that he was safe. And somehow, somehow Henry had managed to make his son think that he disliked him. 

They are better now, with adulthood and years between but he knows there is still a hesitation there in his younger son with the father who had judged his friends, had forbidden him sports and parties and things that Harry had more and more simply gone to. Lizzie had talked him around into permitting much of it but his anxiety had remained and Harry had seen it as further...Henry doesn't know, exactly but he thinks it might have been disapproval. Judgement. A feeling that he did not want to subject his friends and his partners to his fathers censure. 

Even now, he can tell it remains. Even after Arthur had passed the remission period, had packed away most of the knit hats Lizzie had gifted him, it had remained. Arthur, Arthur who still has complications even now but Henry thinks sometimes that his son has managed his illness better than he himself - perhaps because Henry had blamed himself, had tried to find a reason to blame himself. 

"It's not you, my darling" his mother had said one day when she'd found him crying alone when Lizzie was taking a shift at the hospital and she had rubbed his back just as she used to do when he was small. Usually Henry believes in his mother wholeheartedly but he cannot. Not with this. He still cannot. Arthur and Margaret seem to have understood but he and Harry didn't, not entirely. Even when they talked again, really talked there was still a hesitancy and Henry, Henry hadn't wanted to intrude. Hadn't wanted to force things, because it would have been even less fair to demand affection from Harry, to demand the kind of openness his father hadn't managed to convey. 

"You need to ask him" Lizzie tells him. "And then I think you need to talk to him." 

So he's standing at his sons door, feeling entirely at sea. When Harry answers the door he looks surprised but lets him in and they make awkward small talk as the coffee brews (Henry drinks his black - a reminder to him of France and Harry drinks his with flavourings and whipped cream. Henry had always been worried about his son, that he would be judged for his taste in drinks and had tried to tell him so. It had been one of those things that had read as judgement of Harry, he knows that now). 

The silence stretches for a moment and then more and Harry finally asks him why he is here in the middle of the day and Henry, Henry struggles to find the words. He has often struggled to find the words, he knows - finding it easier to express his love in other ways but he knows he needs to find the words now. Knows it is important, because he can see the way his son is glowing. The same way Henry himself had, when he had met Lizzie. 

There is a plush toy lion, worn but still very loved that had been his father's first gift to Harry. There were others. Long indulgent card games and chess games in which his father had patiently let Henry explain the elaborate rules he had made up. Business help - from first jobs in which tax forms had been patiently explained and worked through. Cups of tea during his A Levels, without question. But he still felt judgement. Still felt he was never enough, never right. That his friends were definitely never right. And for once, for once he and his father can talk. 

"I just...I don't want you looking at them like they aren't safe for me, Dad. That they are out to take advantage of me because it isn't a fair thing - especially for Tom. " 

Henry's heart breaks, it truly does. But he puts all the conviction he can into his voice when he tells his son that he loves him and that he will make sure he does not, because he knows now that it isn't fair. That he hadn't, in his fear and love, been fair to Harry. And it is not solved between them, but it far more so than it had been before. 

"I can't say I won't worry about you - I always will but I promise that I know those two are good people who love you and I can only judge them very favourably for loving you Harry" is the last thing he says before they part (apart from the gentle teasing about his taste in coffee from his on, which is a family tradition at this point). 

-

Elizabeth adores all her children but she and Harry have always been close and so she’s here, giving her much taller son a hug.

“Mum, I love them” he tells her and she can see it, had been able to see it from the first because she’d had the same kind of glow with his father.

“Then they are very lucky” she tells him.

"That's what Dad said actually" Harry tells her as he puts away plates and Elizabeth is very glad that they have talked, especially when Harry says that he'd like it if she and Henry and Meg and Arthur could come over to meet Anne and Tom soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plush toy lion is a semi homage to the 'H7 may have bought EOY a lion' thing.


	10. Chapter 10

When it comes to it Henry finds himself more nervous than Anne or Tom, which he knows it's ridiculous. He's had lunch with his parents and siblings so many times and he's not worried about the impression that Anne and Tom will make but he is worried that it won't go well. That two groups of people he loves the most in the world will not gel together, will not take to each other. He wants his family to love Anne and Tom, to have the same warmth towards them as they do towards Catalina and Meg's Jamie. So he fidgets on the couch, having gotten ready far too early (he'd tried a cup of tea but it hadn't worked and he thinks he might have broken the mug) when Anne, who is half ready in a blue Roland Mouret that really brings out her eyes, gives him a half hug and Tom, who is wearing pale blue, throws him one of the fidget toys that Henry normally keeps in his office and that helps settle the part of his brain that tends to get tangled in all directions. So he waits as Anne applies eyeliner and Tom sits beside him, hand on his leg and a comforting presence. Also a really good looking one, Henry thinks, looking at his loves with a happy pride. 

They've picked a restaurant that doesn't amplify sound - with a private room and a share plate menu that manages to suit everyone and as it turns out, they aren't late or early but arrive at exactly the right time. All the others are there and as it turned out, Henry needn't have worried. It's easy and warm, though Tom might sometimes be reflectively uneasy around his dad it's only a reflex unease that happens around a certain broad type of man, nothing that's specific about Henry Senior. Tom even gets him to smile, Henry sees - something about a long story about some obscure and arcane legal joke, while Anne. Anne charms everyone, because Anne is charm itself, Henry thinks with a joyful fondness, so at the end when his dad whispers "you did very well son" and his mum says "please marry them Harry' in a tone that's only about a quarter joking he knows they have done well. 

(Even Rosie likes them and Rosie is not an easily impressed sixteen year old, despite outward appearances. He knows Meg likes them because they have the same dry sense of humour and it's the same with Arthur). 

That's the day, that's the real day when he knows he's going to start searching for rings. He had been planning to from the start, but now, now he can give himself permission to do so without feeling he is rushing or being too hasty. When you know, you know, his mum had said to him once when he'd been miserable after he and Bess had broken up, I knew with your father, despite everything. And he'd known all along but now, now it is in illuminated letters and he can truly know, truly make plans for dreams he'd thought he'd forgotten. 

So he plans rings. He plans a visit to a Rabbi, because he knows that their wedding will be an interfaith one as well as a visit to the family priest - he knows Wolsey will be happy to work with an interfaith service. And he thinks about a proposal and how to do so. They've talked about it, in the months they've been dating - they've talked about all kinds of things. But now it is tinged with the joy of knowing that it will be realised. 

"Do you think you'd want kids someday?" Tom asks one evening, almost hesitantly as though he feels he has no right to ask such a question and Henry smiles with joy and Anne grins happily and says "yes, do you mind a large family" and Henry says no, of course he doesn't mind - he'd love to have a whole tribe of kids running around with some pets and a country house and all the things he’s dreamed of since he was very young. 

They sit together on the couch and talk about baby names (“Tudor I am not naming a child buttercup - yes, I agree The Princess Bride is a masterpiece but we still aren’t calling our child ‘Butter’ as a nickname”) and how toys should be gender neutral and it’s actually among the most fun experiences Henry has had. Even though he still thinks they should let him call their child something Princess Bride themed, because honestly it's an amazing movie and he loves the idea. 

(On his birthday Anne and Tom present him with a Princess Bride cake and he is delighted)

-

A part of Henry thinks he should be nervous, looking for rings but he isn't - he's just glowing and utterly delighted - the kind of joy he remembers feeling as a kid when his birthday came around but multiplied tenfold. He talks with the jeweller - he knows that Tom likes simple designs and Anne isn't a fan of a big diamond and that she loves sapphires so Henry has a guide, in the end. A ring shaped into myrtle leaves with two small diamonds in between for Tom and a sapphire in the centre for both him and Anne. Anne's, Anne's has diamonds either side as well. 

He wants an inscription as well, one that fits for them both. Something that says to them, you will be mine, I will be yours. I love you, I love you always and forever and he's not sure what it might be, not yet and it's something he wants to decide for himself, without outside guidance because it's important to Henry that they know that this, this is all his own. That it will always be his heart and soul, however imperfect but it will be sure. 

Which is why he decides in the end on something so simple it seems at first to be not enough but he realises that it says exactly what he wishes it to. Beloved in Hebrew and Star & Moon in Farsi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I based Anne's ring on Meghan Markles engagement ring but the centre stone is a sapphire. Tom's is based on **[this amazing ring](https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/643363775/leaf-eternity-gold-ring-with-leaves-and?ref=user_profile&frs=1)**. The Roland Mouret is also a Meghan Markle dress as **[seen here](https://www.vogue.com.au/celebrity/news/meghan-markle-just-arrived-at-her-prewedding-hotel-with-her-mother-wearing-roland-mouret/news-story/93ab3f81dd6d4e3fd35f5b6cea70ebe0)**
> 
> (The ring inscription took forever but it's based partly off something Henry says in a Rewrite The Stars verse ficlet - that Anne is a star and Tom is the moon (Henry is the sun) and also partly The Song Of Solomon and a Jewish Liturgical Song (sort of in part) and some inspiration from Maureen Nehedar who is a Persian-Jewish musician)


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very specifically dedicated to FeuillesMortes who very very much helped me by answering a bunch of random London related questions. Any errors are my own.

Henry had thought of many ways he might make a proposal - from a summer night in Paris or Italy to a path of rose petals in their house. What he ends up with is a picnic in Kensington Gardens - a picnic basket from their favourite bakery and a quiet evening in which London seems to be at its most perfect - the smell of flowers and green spaces surrounding them as they sit on the hill near the Italian Garden, with Tom laughing at a story of Anne's, his head resting on her lap as Henry passes them cherries and they watch the park and he admits, his own parents story of parks and roses has stayed with him and it feels right, that it happens here, in this place that is something old and something new all at once. It makes him smile, this feeling of rightness - a basket of food, cushions, a blanket and the flowers that are all around them and the people he loves most in the world as he gets to one knee. 

"You are my quiet place in the world, loves and if I could I would give you all that I have, my own sweethearts, but I my heart and soul is yours, always" he says and somehow, somehow he's not trembling or nervous but only warm and happy, certain in the knowledge that this is right. Thomas and Anne, Thomas and Anne say yes, yes, of course, laughing and smiling and they twirl each other around and it seems as though they are dancing in some enchanted isle. They take photos for instagram and for family - even one taken by a delighted tourist who congratulates them and wishes them happiness. 

"You do realise," Anne says when they are all home and tangled around each other on the floor, "that we are going to have to tell so many people now" 

She throws a cushion at him when Tom suggests they elope. 

"Henry here is already thinking about wedding themes, don't even think about it" 

Henry doesn't deny it, because he's been thinking about it for a long time, what their wedding might look like, how he wants to shape it and how much he is looking forward to seeing what Anne and Tom would like. How much he's looking forward to the fact that they are going to get married, that it's going to work out. 

He cannot think of a moment in which he was happier than this. 

"Henry, I love you but my arm is going to sleep" is what breaks up the moment and they all move to get up off the floor, laughing (and trying to find where their clothes have gone) but the golden feeling lasts for the rest of the evening and into the next day. 

-

They call all their families the next morning (well Thomas calls Rafe and Jamilla and Zoe but they are his family) - Rosie says "finally" at him, his mum is delighted and he can see his fathers smile and Arthur just agrees with Rosie (Meg just tells him he has better taste than she'd thought), while the Boleyn-Howard family talks delightedly in a combination of English, French and Mandarin and finally (finally) Henry thinks they are left to themselves to have a lazy breakfast and start thinking about the wedding. 

Thomas goes to the synagogue later because he needs to say a prayer of thanks and Anne goes with him, though both of them are out of practice, it feels right to be here, to say their thanks. Henry goes to the Abbey and cannot help but say, thank you, thank you, thank you for this gift I have been given. When he comes home he finds a beautifully put together dinner - his favourite foods, candles and roses and there is a box upon the table. 

"We wanted to give you this love - we were going to wait but then we both decided we couldn't" Anne and Thomas say as Henry opens the box to find a wedding band nestled in the box. It is engraved upon the inside. Aut illic, aut nullibi. Either there, or nowhere

 

"Because you are our everywhere" Anne says, her eyes full of love as Thomas nods. 

"We wanted you to know that" Thomas smiles up at him later. "That we will be your there" 

-

As it turns out, Henry calls most of his friends. He has thought out who he wants in the wedding party - Charles, Arthur, Rosie and Meg as his groomspeople, Marisol as a flower girl even if she'll try to eat her flower crown. He talks to Charles the longest - Charles who immediately teases him about how ridiculously fucking gone he is (Charles has been away for work during most of this, which means he hasn't actually met Anne and Tom yet) and agrees that yes of course he'll be there. 

"But I'm not wearing some kind of terrible lavender bow tie Tudor" 

-

Henry Tudor Senior looks at the clock. Looks at it again. Finds himself rubbing the end of his nose and trying to settle himself. He doesn't, he finds, particularly want to be at work - he wants to find himself at home with Lizzie, delighting in the engagement party that she will undoubtedly want to hold and thinking of how they might announce that their youngest son is getting married. He does not want to look at his job, which is usually so soothing and easy - a place to be still where the world is usually too much and too awkward for him. 

"We're thinking a spring wedding" Harry had said. 

"I hope they know half the society pages are going to be ridiculous about it" his mother had said to Lizzie, with a smile on her face. 

"Harry runs an event company - I think he knows very well how ridiculous the whole thing is going to be. He's going to love every minute of it" is what Lizzie had said - her eyes happy but with a hint of memory of her charming father who had easily managed such things. 

With an effort Henry pulls his mind back to the next meeting on his agenda - something about a John Norwich and a company expansion that warranted a tech partnership.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The little bit of dialogue from Henry's proposal is taken from some of Henry's love letters to Anne Boleyn  
> 2\. The Italian Garden in Kensington Gardens is a really gorgeous spot - you can picnic on the grass nearby and there are some really gorgeous flowers and trees and fountains. (Also originally Kensington Gardens was part of Hyde Park which was a deer park for Henry VIII).   
> 3\. It is possible I spent far too much time looking this up but you can totally get pre-made picnic hampers from several places in London and they sound great.   
> 4\. I have somewhat fictionalised the synagogue in which Tom visits but it's a combination of the Westminster, Bevis Marks & New West End Synagogue (the latter two are among the oldest/the oldest in the UK) partly because I wanted a very specific community and I didn't want to use a real one here.   
> 5\. Aut illic, aut nullibi. Either there, or nowhere is from a love letter Henry wrote to Anne.


End file.
